


Beginning

by Arbryna



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II
Genre: Dragon Age Kiss Battle, F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-16
Updated: 2013-02-16
Packaged: 2017-11-29 11:08:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/686275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arbryna/pseuds/Arbryna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aveline gets a surprise when she rings in the new year.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Another fill for the [Dragon Age Kiss Battle, prompt: _unexpected gifts_.](http://owlmoose.dreamwidth.org/618801.html)

She hadn't celebrated last year. Hadn't seen the point. She'd still been crammed into Gamlen Amell's hovel in Lowtown, sharing a bedroom with three other people, none of which were the one she'd wanted beside her.

There hadn't been any reason to celebrate the beginning of her first year without him. 

It had felt like more of an ending, really. The sun had set on the last day of the last year she would ever be able to say she'd been with him, and the days had stretched out ahead of her, each one promising to take her farther and farther from her dear Wesley. 

Aveline had hated Kirkwall then, hated its filthy streets and fetid air and its overabundance of templars in shining armor mocking her at every turn. She'd lost count of how many times she'd caught the glint of sun off of silverite and turned, her heart catching in her throat as she saw the flaming sword emblazoned on a breastplate, blade proudly pointed up toward a face that wasn't his. 

She'd hated Hawke, too--hated her more than anything else, for being the one to drive a dagger into her husband's heart--for being the one to take him from her, even if he'd already been lost beyond saving. It hadn't been fair, but fair was a concept she hadn't been overly concerned with at the time; it hadn't been fair for him to be taken from her, hadn't been fair that her king had been betrayed and she'd been forced to leave behind everything she'd ever known to escape the flaming darkspawn. 

No, there hadn't been cause for celebration last year. Being alive was cold comfort compared to all that she'd lost. 

She'd kept fighting, though. Surrender was never an option. She'd managed to carve out a place for herself in Kirkwall, landed a position with the City Guard. She was starting to rebuild a life that got more bearable every day--with no small amount of help from the woman she couldn't hate now if she tried.

"I didn't know you were on patrol tonight."

Aveline chuckled to herself; it was almost disturbing how all she had to do was think about Hawke and she'd appear. "I'm not," she replied, peering up at her friend. Sweat matted Hawke's hair to her face, and splatters of blood decorated her clothes, but she appeared uninjured. Aveline would have chided her for wandering around picking fights on her own if she thought it would do any good, but past history told her otherwise.

"Just feeling nostalgic for the dirt and grime of Lowtown, then?" Hawke said with a smirk, sinking down onto the steps next to Aveline. "I'll bet you miss that lovely aroma of chokedamp and sour sea air when you're tucked away in your bed at the barracks."

"This is the docks, Hawke," Aveline corrected. "Not Lowtown."

Hawke shrugged. "Same thing. If anything, it smells worse."

"I can't argue that," Aveline said with a quiet laugh. Hawke's shoulder bumping into her own drew her attention back to her friend. 

"So why are you down here this late?" Hawke asked gently. "You're not brooding are you? Because I might be forced to take drastic measures."

"That won't be necessary." Aveline smiled softly, turning contemplative as she looked out across the harbor. The sky was lightening ever so slowly above the horizon; the sun would be rising soon. "I used to do this every year," she said slowly. She still wasn't used to the way Hawke made her want to share things. "Whenever I could, that is. Find somewhere quiet, watch the first sunrise of the year. Always suited me better than drinking myself silly and making a fool of myself like everyone else." 

"It does seem more fitting." Hawke's smile turned awkward as she looked down at her hands. After a moment, she took a breath to speak again. "Did you do this with him?" she asked carefully.

Pain stabbed at Aveline's chest, as sharp as if the wound was fresh. "Never got the chance," she replied tightly. 

"I'm sorry." Hawke's hand slipped onto Aveline's knee and squeezed. "I just...well, you didn't do it last year. I thought..."

"Last year," Aveline said, trying to redirect the conversation to happier topics, "I was too busy dragging your arse out of whatever fire Athenril had dropped it in that week."

With a grin, Hawke withdrew her hand, leaning back on her palms. "Well, it's a very fine arse. It would have been a shame to get it singed." 

Aveline shook her head. "Flames," she muttered under her breath, unable to stop a smile from tugging at her mouth. 

Hawke bumped her shoulder again, more gently this time. When Aveline looked up, the mischief had left Hawke's expression, leaving a warm, sincere happiness. "It's good to see you looking forward for a change."

For a moment Aveline was startled. She hadn't thought her grief had been that obvious--but then, Hawke had always been a little more perceptive than most. "Not much use looking back," she said with a shrug. "Can't change the past." 

"No matter how much you may want to," Hawke said softly, her voice tinged with regret. 

Drawing a deep breath, Aveline pushed back the familiar urge to argue; Bethany's death hadn't been Hawke's fault, any more than Wesley's had been. It was a conversation they'd had over and over, so much that Aveline could play it all out in her head without voicing a word of it by now. 

"Wesley's...death," she said, forcing the word past the lump in her throat. "It left a scar, but he wouldn't want me to spend the rest of my life in mourning. I doubt your sister would want that for you, either."

Hawke's smile was bittersweet and strained. "Father used to say that scars were just marks of battles won."

"Smart man."

"He was," Hawke replied, her smile growing as she met Aveline's eyes. "I think he'd have liked you."

For some inexplicable reason, the statement made Aveline uncomfortable. She scoffed a little to herself, chalking it up to her own unresolved father issues. "I can't imagine I'd have much in common with a runaway mage." 

"You and I find plenty enough to talk about," Hawke pointed out with a smirk.

Absurdly, they fell into a companionable silence then, both looking out as the sky brightened in the distance.

"So what are you doing wandering the docks at this hour, anyway?" Aveline finally asked.

"Just cleaning up a bit of refuse," Hawke replied with a shrug. "Your patrols should be quieter down here from now on."

Aveline chuckled. "That's what the guard's for, you know," she told Hawke for what must have been the thousandth time. "Not that we don't appreciate the help. Couldn't sleep?"

Hawke shot her a skeptical look. "You lived at Gamlen's long enough. Could you?"

"Fair point."

Across the harbor, the sky was changing color, the deep blue of twilight overtaken by soft shades of orange and pink. The silence this time was less comfortable, more filled with a nervous sort of tension. Aveline could feel it, even if she wasn't quite sure where it was coming from. Hawke seemed to be more anxious as the sun grew higher, leaning forward to rest her forearms across her knees as her fingers fidgeted restlessly. 

When Hawke sighed, Aveline finally turned to question her about it, only to be met with a sudden press of lips to the corner of her mouth. Hawke must have been aiming for her cheek, because at first she was as stunned as Aveline herself. After a moment, though, her lips softened, moving gently against Aveline's skin in a gentle caress that could have been chaste if it hadn't gone on so long.

Before Aveline could even work out what was happening, Hawke pulled away, her cheeks flushed pink in the first light of morning. "Happy First Day, Aveline," she said shyly, blue eyes sparkling in the faint sunlight as they darted to meet Aveline's for a brief second. Then she was standing, walking off toward the walls that bordered Lowtown. 

Waves lapped against the bottom of the steps that led down into the water, catching the light as the sun slowly rose higher. Aveline's skin tingled where Hawke's lips had lingered; her fingers reached up to cover it as her mind raced. Of all the ways she'd thought to start this new year, she'd never expected _that_. 

As she stared out at the harbor, a smile pulled at the corners of her mouth. Last year, this day had felt like everything was ending. This year...

This year, she thought, something might just be beginning.


End file.
